Voting has closed on another week of The Enquirer’s local college football players of the week award, and our readers selected a second-time winner.

In the Division I category, Malik Verdon takes home honors with more than 44% of the vote. There was no small school category this week, because Division II and Division III football entering playoffs caused a shortage of candidates.

Verdon was all over the field as No. 22 Iowa State survived a tough challenge from Utah to win 31-28 last Saturday. The Hamilton graduate led the Cyclones with 12 tackles and added a sack.

Verdon played two seasons at Moeller before transferring to Hamilton for his senior year. He leads Iowa State with 74 tackles, and he’s also recorded a sack, five passes defended, an interception and a forced fumble.

Previous winners

Previous winners from this season in the Division I category:

DB Josh Fussell, Northwestern (Lakota West)

DB Jaydan Mayes, Army (Fairfield)

LB Jaheim Thomas, Wisconsin (Princeton)

LB Joey Stemler, Ball State (Elder)

DB Malik Verdon, Iowa State (Hamilton)

LB Grant Lyons, Miami-Ohio (St. Xavier)

TE Max Klare, Purdue (St. Xavier)

RB Corey Kiner, Cincinnati (Roger Bacon)

LB Daniel Bolden, Toledo (Colerain)

Winners this season in the small school category:

RB Kai Smith, Wilmington College (Shroder)

RB Ty’aris Stevenson, Ashland (Withrow)

WR Eli Aston, Mount St. Joseph (East Central)

DL Brady Buller, Mount St. Joseph (Elder)

QB J.J. Miller, Wittenberg (Williamsburg)

QB Matthew Rueve, Findlay (St. Xavier)

QB J.J. Miller, Wittenberg (Williamsburg)

QB Tyler Prather, Mount St. Joseph (Colerain)

K Lucas Swierk, Wittenberg (Little Miami)

Want to nominate a player for a future week? Email jschmelzinger@gannett.com.

Iowa Hawkeyes legend Caitlin Clark has made a great transition from college basketball to the WNBA. She smashed through many WNBA records and also ended up winning the Rookie of the Year Award and was named the All-WNBA First Team.

Despite all of the outside pressure that she has faced, Clark has maintained her maturity and risen above all of the negative noise. She has simply focused on playing basketball and being a good teammate, which is something that Iowa fans know well.

Speaking of her teammates, one of them has spoken out with a very high opinion of Clark.

Lexie Hull recently appeared on the “She’s4Sports” podcast. In that interview, she dropped a quote full of praise for Clark and the way she has handled herself.

“It’s really awesome to get to know her as well, because, you know, she’s a great person, but you all have these expectations put on her and our team has put on her and fans have put on her. So to see her kind of be so mature in that transition, it’s been really awesome.”

As can be seen all over Clark’s social media feeds, her and Hull have become very good friends. The two are constantly around each other, even in the offseason.

All Hawkeyes fans could not be more excited about Clark and proud of her for the way she has made the jump to the WNBA.

During her rookie season, Clark ended up playing in 40 games, averaging 19.2 points per game to go along with 8.4 assists, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.3 steals. She shot 41.7 percent from the floor and knocked down 34.4 percent of her three-point attempts.

Clark is just 22 years old and has a very long future ahead of her in the WNBA. If her rookie season tells us anything, she could go down as one of the best WNBA players of all-time.

That would not surprise any Iowa fan, but there were many who thought Clark would be a bust.

Expect to see Clark come out even stronger in her second WNBA season. She wants to the best and her work ethic shows it. While she will continue dominating on the court, she will also continue being the amazing person off the court that she was with the Hawkeyes.

It’s good to see that all of the pressure and hype has not changed who Clark is away from the game.

Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Atin Wright scored 18 points as North Texas beat Northern Iowa 68-48 on Thursday night at the NIT Season Tip-Off.

Wright shot 7 for 15, including 3 for 8 from beyond the arc for the Mean Green (6-1). Latrell Jossell shot 4 of 9 from the field and 6 of 6 from the free-throw line to add 15 points. Jasper Floyd went 5 of 6 from the field to finish with 12 points.

The Panthers (3-3) were led in scoring by Ben Schwieger, who finished with 13 points. Leon Bond III added eight points and eight rebounds for Northern Iowa. Jacob Hutson also put up eight points.

North Texas took the lead with 19:39 left in the first half and did not relinquish it. Wright led his team in scoring with 10 points in the first half to help put them up 34-21 at the break. North Texas outscored Northern Iowa by seven points over the final half, while Jossell led the way with a team-high 13 second-half points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.